


We Meet in the Middle

by ChaoticBabe



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M, Pre-Season/Series 03, Prophetic Dreams, Richie isn't the only Gecko who sees things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 10:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticBabe/pseuds/ChaoticBabe
Summary: Seth handles Kate's death like he's handled all previous tragedies in his life, badly and with too much alcohol.
Relationships: Kate Fuller/Seth Gecko
Comments: 11
Kudos: 71





	We Meet in the Middle

**Author's Note:**

> In which Kate comes to Seth in his dreams.

The night after they kill Carlos- cut him up into pieces- Seth gets piss drunk. It’s eerily reminiscent of the first night after the twister.

(But back then _she_ was with him)

He’s worn thin from the last several days, which have felt like one long bad trip.

Uncle Eddie's dead.

Kate's dead.

Lots of others too of course, Seth just doesn’t care about them.

(But _hey_ , at least Richie got his twice damned lordship)

Grabbing the nearest bottle of whiskey from the counter he moves his one man party to one of Malvado’s hideous couches, something that’s meant to be seen more than used, quickly bringing the bottle to his lips once more. 

He's tired of trying to wrap his head around all the death.

Needs to shut everything off for a few hours. Whiskey always helps with that.

Still Kate's face finds its way back to the forefront of his mind, demanding his attention.

Pretty preachers daughter with too much spine, and not enough sense to run when she had the chance.

In the end it got her killed.

They got her killed.

Kate’s _dead_.

(maybe if he repeats it enough it’ll stop feeling like he’s got a knife lodged in his chest)

Kate's dead and the last time he saw her, he was leaving her on the side of the road in the middle of mexico covered in blood.

Sighing he takes a long pull from the bottle.

(She wasn’t supposed to die. She _wasn’t_ -)

Seth drinks till he finally, blessedly, passes out.

No sooner than he’s gone to the world than he finds himself waking up on a cheap lounge chair over looking a pool.

A pool Kate’s swimming in.

Seth blinks. Tries to process what he’s seeing.

It isn't an all together unfamiliar scene, even during the worst of their Bonnie and Clyde routine Kate found her way into motel pools.

It’s a pleasant scene in fact, one that in life Seth never let himself enjoy.

But Kate's dead - still feels like a knife in his chest- so this can’t be real.

And if this isn’t real, well.

Leaning back he allows himself take in the view, she’s wearing the red bikini he nicked for her the first time he caught her staring longingly at the pool. He’s hell bound anyway, might as well enjoy the ride there.

(It's hardly the first time she featured in his sleep, no, she's been a regular feature longer than he wants to admit)

As nice as the moment is, a relief from reality, he can't help but feel unsettled.

Something about this is off. He's to clear headed, as opposed to the normal hazy quality of his dreams.

Managing to get ahold of himself, he slowly strolls over to the edge of the pool. Kate catches sight of him, slowly starting to swim towards him from the other side. Sitting he dangles his legs into the water unbothered with getting his pants soaked. Kate meets him a foot away, swimming in place looking up at him. Seth watches her with a bemused smile.

“Princess?”

Kate just blinks up at him, raising one eyebrow in question.

Sighing he temporarily lets go of his unease and say's the first thing that comes to mind, "What the hell were you thinking Kate? You were supposed to go home." Which of course is never a good idea and sure to piss her off.

Kate's eyes harden and she tilts her chin up,"Why would you ever believe I'd do that."

He didn't, not really. "You were supposed to be safe. Get away."

"To where? There was no home left to go to, and I had to find Scott. You _knew_ that." The last part comes out sounding like an accusation, maybe it is.

"I told you-"

"You told me alot of things Seth." The use of his name stops him up short.

" _Anyone you ever loved is dead_ , do you remember saying that," Seth visibly flinches at the words. While he's trying to find the words to apologize, he has so much to apologize for, Kate takes the opportunity to close the distance between them. Resting one hand on his thigh to hold herself steady the other wraps around his arm yanking him down closer to her level.

He'd find the situation hot if it weren't for her next words.

"Now I'm the dead one."

Her nails dig into his forearm, drawing blood, ”A walking, talking double feature horror show.”

In a flash she pulls him down into the water.

He wakes gasping in a cold sweat on the couch. Taking a moment to try to catch his breath while the dream plays back in his head, an ache in his arm slowly lets itself be known. Rolling up his sleeve what he finds leaves his heart banging in his chest.

They're right where Kate dug into him are bloody scratch marks.

  
After a few days, when he’s had time to think on it more he becomes convinced it wasn’t _just_ a dream.

Thinks of asking Richie about it at first, it’s something that’s straight up his alley. Seeing things that aren't really there isn’t that far off from dreams that leave a mark.

Goes as far as to sit down to eat with him, only to find the words lodged in his throat. It's a startling realization that he doesn't want to share this with him. Doesn't want to share Kate or what's left of her, with him.

He justifies it all by rationalizing that it was only a dream, too realistic in nature because the whisky went to his head. He scratched himself in his sleep, nothing more.

It didn't _mean anything_.

He believes that till the next night, after having one too many he shuts his eyes only to come face to face with Kate standing by an empty grave.

Seth wakes to a hangover and dirt in his bed

-

He doesn't speak her name during the day, yells at Richie the few times he does. It feels too much like taking something in vain. She's dead and gone because of them, because of him.

They've taken enough.

-

The late night visits continue. 

(He still hasn't told Richie about them)

With no set time or frequency to them. The only thing that doesn't vary is Kate and himself.

Once she comes only to sit in silence in the passenger seat of a car that he drives along a dirt black road leading to nowhere. The radio plays a song he doesn't know but Kate hums along to it while staring out the window. Sunlight glints off a cross necklace casually slung over the rear view mirror, swaying with the movement of the car. 

It goes on continually like this till right before he wakes up, parking in front of a cross roads. 

Kate sits up snatching the cross breaking it's chain in the process. She takes a moment to stare at it in her hand as he stares at her.

"He isn't watching over me anymore."

With that she tosses it in the back and begins to move. He's powerless do to more than watch her as she opens her door to leave, but before she gets all the way out she turns back to him. Seth finds himself staring into too bright green eyes, something dark lingers in them. 

Her voice sounds choked, "She's got me now. She's got me, and things are only going to get worse from here."

"Who?"

Kate's face grows sorrowful.

"I hope you don't have to find out."

He goes to press her for answers only to wake tangled in his sheets.

For the next week the dream repeats.

He never is able to stop Kate from leaving the car.

-

Seth learns quickly alcohol brings about the dreams.

They only ever come when he's deep in his cups.

Which is all the time lately.

He figures drugs would work too, but he never touches them. After all he put Kate through those three months Seth can't bring himself to reach for them. Not even to see her again.

If he really is meeting with her, which he only half believes, she’d hate him for it. Why add one more reason to the list.

He sticks to drinking, uncaring of the damage it's sure to be doing to his liver. 

-

  
Kate's waiting for him on the hood of a black car, a replica of the one they drove off into the sunrise in, arms wrapped around her middle.

Seth licks his lips, rallying himself for whatever's about to come.

As he moves to close the short distance between them, she looks him steadily in the eye and lifts her arms.

It takes a moment to notice Kate's hands come away bloody.

Seth moves in a quick frantic motions, trying to stem the bleeding from her stomach- sometimes he forgets that this isn't real, that she's already gone.

Distantly he feels two hands cupping his face, forcing his head up to be pierced by clear green eyes.

"You're too late."

When he wakes Seth is unsurprised to find bloody hand prints on his face in the mirror.

-

Seth's going insane. For the first time in his life he thinks he truly understands Richie.

The dreams are real.

They're just dreams, Kate's dead.

Kate is dead.

Kate is dead.

They never found her body, she _could-_

She's dead. dead. dead.

(Kate's small hand reaches to gently grab his own, pushing up the sleeve of his dress shirt, tracing his tattoo. Tells him how some old Aztec sun god - _What kind of name is Brasa_ \- has an arm of fire too. Seth asks her to tell him more, he doesn't really care, just wants her to keep talking.)

Seth's going insane.

(When he wakes Seth swears he can still feel the imprint of her touch)

He's not too sure he cares.

-

"Hell is a place and it's as much for the living as the dead."

Seth glares, but Kate hardly seems to notice. 

They walk along an abandon road, Kate calls it a dead road, together. It could be anywhere, but Seth suspects they're somewhere in Texas.

"I don't get it, you know I've never been good with supernatural crap."

Kate looks at him then, and her mouth twitches downwards but all she does is shrug.

"Come see for yourself"

He follows her. Of course he follows her.

The endless desert she leads him too leaves him feeling numb and on edge for days afterward.

-

During the day Seth plays middle men to a bunch of entitled vampire pricks, pushing through the hours till he can disappear to his room. Hoping every time he shuts his eyes that she'll be there.

He's living more for his dreams than anything else now.

(He has long since stopped pretending to himself that he is ever going to Richie what's going on) 

-

"You can always make the hard calls, no matter how much you don't want to."

"I guess so," Seth warily agrees with her. He always has, ever since Richie and him were kids. That's just what big brothers do. But she's right, it doesn't mean he likes to.

They're standing knees deep in the ocean, Seth promised her earlier that he'd take her to a small private beach he knew in Florida one day. She smiled sadly but didn't call him on the lie.

It put her in a mood though, melancholy enough he wishes he could take his words back. 

"You might have to one day, I might need you to." He can barely hear Kate's words over the wind that's suddenly picked up.

Looking around he notices the sky growing dark, with deep unease he asks,"What the hell are you talking about sweetheart?" 

Sighing Kate turns to him, with a gun suddenly in her hand. "You have to make the hard call Seth." Her voice is firm but she wont meet his eyes.

She puts the gun cocked and loaded in his hand, guides his finger to the trigger then points point blank against her her head. 

His arm is shaking but he can't pull away- he always the dreams where he's helpless to move. "Kate, what are you doing?" Desperation and fear creep into his voice. 

He wants to wake up now.

"Here let's practice."

He can't stop her from forcing the trigger down. The gun shot echos along with his scream.

If he wasn't insane before, he's sure he is now.

-

It's been a solid month since Kate's last visited his dreams- it's never been more than a week before.

Since she forced him to blow her brains out.

Seth's little more than a wreck.

He's increasingly agitated and cross with everyone during the day, taking out his frustration and worry by yelling. Richie eyes him more than usual but doesn't ever comment on his temper. Probably thinks Seth's mad at him. Seth's happy to let him think that, saves him from making up some shit excuse that Richie would never buy.

He needs too see her again. Needs answers.

His solution is to start getting miserably wasted in his room.

Steadily increasing the amount he drinks since the usual isn't cutting it anymore. Throws back a sleeping pill just to be sure. It ends up taking three nights, but it works.

On the third night Kate finally pays him a visit.

She looks pissed off from the start, "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean princess?"

It's always better to play the dimwit than let people know how smart you are, even in a dream.

Kate rolls her eyes while letting out a small huff. "Come off it Seth," She makes a small gesture with her hand to the wall of booze behind her. "You know what I mean."

Sighing she states,"You have to stop doing this, it'll just make things worse."

A fierce wave of anger washes over him.

"It's no different from all the other times, and you didn't have problem then. I deserve to know what's going on."

Suddenly Kate looks exhausted, similar to the last days he saw her alive "I've told you what I could."

When he speaks his voice comes out like a growl, "You put a gun in my hand and made me shoot you, _for practice_. What the fuck does that even mean. What the fuck is that supposed to tell me."

Kate just stares imploringly up at him, as if he already has the answer and she's just waiting for him to get it. 

Something inside him aches as he looks on her, it always has. It causes his shoulders to slump in defeat, anger draining away the longer they stare at each other.

Kate's lips part slightly, but no words come out, still his eyes linger on the curve of them.

" _Seth_ "

He's not going to get any answers, never really expected to.

But he's still too full of pint up emotion, and Seth never has been the best at thinking before he acts.

Sighing he decides to do what he's wanted to do since these dreams started, since long before them, he quickly pulls her into his arms before he has time to over think it.

Kate makes a slightly startled sound but doesn’t move to get away. This time no invisible force stops his movements as one hand tangles in her hair, pulling her up toward him as he leans down till their lips connect. It's a fierce kiss, filled with too many emotions to name. Despite the fact that when he wakes, he'll question whether or not it was Kate he was kissing or a figment of his imagination, Seth enjoys every second of it, especially when after the initial surprise she returns the kiss in fervor. 

Long before he is ready, Seth pulled away, looking into Kate's lidded eyes.

She gives him a broken smile, "This will only make it harder to make the call in the end."

He's leaning back in, planning to distract her from the cryptic messages, when the world fades away.

It feels an awful lot like having a vault clicking into place.

-

That day he staggers out of bed hungover, only to fall back in ten minutes later contemplating the nights events. He tries to make sense of it all- she was holding fast to making the hard call- but even when his head isn't beating a war drum he has trouble deciphering double speak.

Through both his elation at finally kissing her and general worry a dreamless sleep soon comes to claim him.

He knows somehow that he wont be seeing her anymore.

There was an air of finality about it all.

Seth does his best to ignore this.

But he doesn't see her again. Not in his sleep. Not for two weeks.

Not till he's got the air knocked out of him in the ring, only to loose whatever breath he gained when a par of familiar green eyes meet his through the fence.


End file.
